1743–1812
Family name: Kiyokawa. Given name: Denjirō. Art surname: Katsukawa. Art names: Sahitsusai (from 1791); Sahitsuan. Small jar-shaped seal with the character “ki” (wood).
Shunkō lived in Nihonbashi Hasegawachō. He is believed to have been Shunshō’s earliest student. His first works seems to be illustrations to the book “Talks about Debut Plays” (Kaomise shibai banashi), dated to 1766. Around 1771 he started to design actor prints and soon acquired the nickname “Small Jar” (Kotsubo) because he used a small jar seal on his prints with the character “ki” as signature, following his teacher’s large jar seal with inscribed “rin.”
Like his teacher Shunshō, Shunkō concentrated on actor prints and developed a distinctive style. The majority of his prints were in the narrow hosoban format. In 1780, he experimented with close-up portraits of actors in aiban format and two such prints were produced. But it was not until 1788 when he designed the first bust portraits in the ōban format, forerunners for the renowned designs by Sharaku and others in the 1790s.
Shunkō created also a number of sumo wrestler pictures, a motif that suited his powerful drawing style. In the late 1780s he suffered a stroke and was no longer able to use his right arm. He ceased designing prints but continued to paint. He passed away in 1812, aged 70. He is buried at the Zenshōji in Asakusa and his posthumous Buddhist name is Shaku Shunkō Shinji.
early 1780s The actors Ichikawa Danjūrō V (right) and Nakamura Rikō I (left) in unidentified roles. Hosoban nishiki-e diptych. Collection Peter Rieder.
1787 The actor Sawamura Sōjūrō III as Oda Izuminosuke in the play Keisei Ide no yamabuki, Nakamura Theater, IV/1787. Hosoban nishiki-e. Collection Arendie and Henk Herwig.
1788 The wrestlers Itsukushima, Koshinoto and Takinoue at the Sumo Spring Tournament in IV/1788. ōban. Publisher: Toyoshimaya Bunjiemon. Collection Peter Rieder.
c.1780s The actor Bandō Mitsugorō II in an unidentified dance role. Hosoban nishiki-e. Asian Art Museum, National Museums in Berlin.
1794 The actor Onoe Matsusuke I as Ashikaga Takauji in the play Matsu wa misao onna kusunoki, Kawarazaki Theater, XI/1794. Hosoban nishiki-e. Library of Congress.
Shigemasa
1739–1820
Family name: Kitabatake. Childhood name: Tarōkichi. Given name: Kyūgorō, Sasuke. Art surname: Kitao. Art names: Hokuhō, Kōsuisai, Kōsuiken, Suihō Itsujin, et al. Poet name: Karan.
Kitao Shigemasa was born in 1739 as the eldest son of the bookseller and publisher Suharaya Mohei of Nihonbashi. He was originally self-taught and only later became a student of the print artist Nishimura Shigenaga. He specialized in beautiful women, at first strongly influenced by Harunobu, but his main area of activity was illustrating books, starting in 1765. Over 250 are known by him, several of them wiTherotic content. Shigemasa made himself also known as a poet and painter. He worked for over 20 publishers, foremost Tsutaya Jūzaburō. Among his most famous works is the chūban series “Silkworm Cultivation” (Kaiko yashinai gusa), produced from about 1772 in collaboration with Shunshō. Another collaborative project with Shunshō is the illustrations to the book “Mirror of Competing Beauties of the Green Houses” (Seirō bijin awase sugata kagami) from 1776.
Shigemasa had several students and was the founder of the Kitao School. His students included Kubo Shunman (1757–1820) and Kitao Masanobu (Santō Kyōden, 1761–1816). Shigemasa passed away on the 24th day of the first month 1820, aged 82.
early 1770s Tale of ōeyama. Hashira-e. Publisher: Urokogataya Magobei. Library of Congress. Unlisted in Pins 1982.
early 1770s Sugawara no Michizane seated on a platform under a pine and a plum tree. Chūban. Library of Congress.
c.1772. No. 10—Boiling the cocoons, from the series “Silkworm Cultivation” (Kaiko yashinai gusa). Chūban. National Museum of Ethnology, Leiden, The Netherlands.
1772. The actors Ichikawa Yaozō II as Nuregami Chōgorō and Iwai Hanshirō IV as Ume no Oyoshi in the play Futatsu chōchō kuruwa nikki, Nakamura Thetaer, VIII/1772. Hosoban benizuri-e. Publisher: Iseya Kōshichi. Collection Peter Rieder. Unlisted in Mutō 2005.
Toyoharu
1735–1814
Family name: Tajimaya. Given names: Shōjirō, Shin’emon, Masaki. Art surname: Utagawa. Art names: Ichiryūsai, Sen’ō, Senryūsai, Shōjirō.
Toyoharu, born 1735, was from Toyooka in Tajima Province, Western Japan. He went to Kyoto and first studied painting under the Kanō School master Tsuruzawa Tangei (1688–1769). According to the Utagawa retsuden (Lives of Utagawa school masters) he moved around 1763 to Edo and became a student of the print artist Toriyama Sekien (1712–1788). The “Toyo” in Toyoharu’s studio name is apparently derived from Sekien’s personal name Toyofusa. Toyoharu was also influenced by Ishikawa Toyonobu (1711–1785) and Suzuki Harunobu.
Because he lived in Udagawachō in Edo’s Shiba district, he started to use the name Utagawa and, as things developed, he became the founder of the Utagawa school with Toyokuni and Toyohiro as his main students. Toyoharu had a strong influence on successive generations of print artists but was also the teacher of painters such as Sakai Hōitsu (1761–1828), who created a distinctive Rinpa style in Edo.
Active from around 1768, he is especially important for his horizontal prints using the Western technique of one-point vanishing perspective. These perspective prints illustrate famous Japanese sights, temples, theatres, and teahouses, as well as Occidental scenes from history and legend. Also produced in series, predominantely for the publisher Nishimuraya Yohachi, these series usually have the phrase “uki-e” (perspective pictures) in their title. Next to horizontal prints, Toyoharu did also several “pillar prints” (hashira-e).
After working for less than ten different publishers during his entire career, he seemed to have stopped designing prints in the 1780s and turned to paintings. After 1785, he also designed a few kabuki programs and billboards. In 1796, he was appointed head of painters working on the restoration of the Tokugawa shrine in Nikko. Contrary to his students, he was not active in illustrating books apart from two publications, one being “Illustrated Book of Edo Brocade” (Ehon Edo nishiki) from 1804.
He
